Dean Ambrose revealed in a recent interview with Daniel Cutts that he’d love to do a cross-code fight in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) for the right price. The Lunatic Fringe claims to have no qualms about stepping inside the world-famous Octagon to fight anyone right now.
Anbrose grew up in the tough streets of Cincinnati, Ohio and has spoken about his love for fighting, on multiple occasions in the past. It’s interesting to note that the 31-year old WWE Intercontinental champion has not participated in any variation of legitimate, non-scripted combat-sporting competition in his life, apart from the WWE’s worked matches.
Despite not possessing any prior experience in professional fighting and having no background in martial arts, Ambrose opined that he will fight anyone for enough money- $500,000 to be precise. For those who don’t follow the UFC organization or the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), one ought to know that MMA is widely considered as one of the, if not the most, brutal sports in the history of mankind. Regardless, here’s what Deano has to say regarding a potential transition from the squared-circle to the cage-
“I’ll fight anyone for enough money—Give me half-a-million dollars. Put them in the ring, I’ll do it right now, I’ll do it tonight.”
The former WWE World Heavyweight champion also proceeded to narrate a scary, death-defying incident that he was part of just days before his title defense at Wrestlemania 33-
“I’m big into mounting biking. I actually crashed my mountain bike about a week ago very badly—I thought I was going to die. I fell over the handlebars, full on ninja roll, I flew like 8ft into the air.”
“I thought I probably shouldn’t be doing this a week before WrestleMania. You have to immediately get back on—I crashed on a downhill, you have to just continue. If you stop and think about it too long you’ll psych yourself out.”
The sports of professional wrestling and MMA are intertwined in several aspects, especially when you factor in the larger-than-life characters and outlandish promotional tactics in both industries. However, the latter comprises non-scripted hand-to-hand combat competition whereas pro-wrestling, although physically challenging, features performers who work toward executing their moves safely rather than with the intention of legitimately knocking out or hurting the opponent.
Several MMA fighters such as Ken Shamrock and former UFC Heavyweight champion Josh Barnett have achieved success in pro-wrestling, while on the flipside WWE stars such as Brock Lesnar and Alberto Del Rio (Jose Rodriguez) have a laundry-list of accomplishments in the sport of MMA.
Although Dean Ambrose may be willing to step into the Octagon for a ‘real’ SmackDown, he’s presently involved in a feud for the WWE Intercontinental title against the Miz and will defend his belt against the latter at the RAW brand-exclusive Extreme Rules PPV come June 4th.
Dean stands at an impressive 6’4” and weighs more than 220 pounds, and if he were, indeed, to lace up the MMA gloves and try his luck in the sport’s premier organization, I would definitely tune in to see him compete, for the pure freak-show factor more than anything else. Meanwhile, here’s a glimpse of the intense training the WWE Superstar undergoes on a regular basis-
